‘Conviction of the Heart’: Kenny Loggins to perform his song with local teens during today’s online Earth Day festival

Kenny Loggins is impressed with photos showing a significant change in major cities.

Their skies are clean.

“This ‘shelter at home’ time has produced dramatic photographs of our major cities without polluted skies!” the Montecito singer told the News-Press, answering questions by email. “Who knew that was even possible? And how quickly it happened!”

Mr. Loggins, 72, said he hopes the photos will inspire people to believe a non-polluted environment is possible and could be sustained if they insisted on change from the government.

The musician brings his passion for the environment to #TogetherWeEarthrise Earth Day Live Festival. The strictly online version of the annual Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival starts at noon today. (The usual festival was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.)

Mr. Loggins, whose hits include the theme of “Footloose” (1984) and “Danger Zone” from “Top Gun” (1986), is among the local musicians performing. He’s doing so in a video from his Montecito home, which includes his band members performing in Los Angeles and Nashville.

In addition, Mr. Loggins has recruited local teens, performing at their homes, to join him and his core band members Dave Salinas, Scott Bernard and Rick Cowling on the chorus of “Conviction of the Heart.” The song appeared on his 1991 album “Leap of Faith.”

Mr. Loggins quoted the chorus:

“One with the earth

One with the sky

One with everything in life.”

Mr. Loggins said he hopes the presence of the teen-agers will emphasize that their generation is inheriting this world.

The singer was praised by Kathi King, the Earth Day festival’s director, for his participation in #TogetherWeEarthrise Earth Day Live Festival.

“He’s performed a few times in the last several years at the festival,” Ms. King told the News-Press. “He’s wonderful.

“Pretty much everyone we reached out to said ‘yes’ right away,” Ms. King said about the musicians, poets and speakers. She noted people have time on their hands and want to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the festival, the Community Environmental Council (the event’s organizer) and Earth Day itself.

“People are happy to have something to engage in and provide some entertainment and inspiration for people at a time when we need it,” Ms. King said.

Mr. Loggins discussed the power of music to help people during the pandemic and other difficult times.

“Music can be used to calm, distract, nurture, motivate, uplift and heal our hearts,” he said, but added, “It will not be much help if we run out of air or water.”

Mr. Loggins said people have been lulled into accepting a polluted world as a normal, natural byproduct of economic progress, “which of course is the opposite of the truth.” He noted people also believe the “lie that there’s just ‘not enough to go around.’ ”

“I have said for 30 years now, the environmental movement isn’t really a political issue. It’s a spiritual one,” Mr. Loggins said, stressing the connection with the earth. “What we do to Her, we do to ourselves.”

Mr. Loggins said his generation may be a lost cause in the environmental movement.

“We almost had the vision of something bigger than daily survival in the ’60s, but we lost it,” he said. “Our present leadership reflects that lack of consciousness.”

Mr. Loggins said he would like the next generation to produce leaders who are less mired in the selfishness and greed of previous generations.

The singer called for tomorrow’s leaders to value cooperation and demonstrate “the imagination to recreate their world.”

Earth Day FYI

#TogetherWeEarthrise Earth Day Live Festival will begin at noon today at sbearthday.org.

Speakers will vary from Santa Barbara movie star Jeff Bridges to former Vice President Al Gore. There will also be several panel discussions.

In addition, the event will feature local musicians Kenny Loggins, Glen Phillips, Zach Gill, Tina Schlieske and Michael McDonald. There will also be poetry performances by Sojourner Kincaid Rolle, the Santa Barbara poet laureate, and Madai Quevedo, a slam poet and a San Marcos High School senior.